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| Julia Mageau Gary the Director and Protagonist of the film |
By FIDELIS SUKINA
During Australia Week last month, I had the chance of
watching the documentary film Tep Tok: Reading between our lines a three part
documentary which follows four women of Papua New Guinea and Australian descent
who explore their tattooing traditions from the central province of Papua New
Guinea, focusing on the aim to understand why and what caused the decline in
the art of traditional tattooing and their three months project which ended up
being a three year one, where they travelled and filmed in Australia, Papua New Guinea, New
Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti and the Cook Islands under Sunameke Productions.
The director and protagonist Julia Mageau Gray said while we
have a strong following of tattooing into contemporary culture today, the
traditional practices of tattooing in Papua New Guinea is on the downfall and
the documentary is a avenue which helps to understand and embrace the once
popular art of traditional tattooing.
She said being outside and coming back to her village, she
saw that her family actually wanted what was back in Australia while she was
trying her best to be like her family here in Papua New Guinea.
“It was out of frustration and deep sadness why can’t we
practice this, I live in Australia and I had this outside perspective, I come
home and I see my cousins and they seem to be aspiring to be us, sort of like
the grass is greener sort of thing”
She added that it was something that didn’t really apply to
them as important in the past.
“My mum never spoke about it my bubus and mothers never
talked about the tattooing I didn’t even notice my bubus tattoos in a sense
where I sat down and, going I wonder what that means and why did you get that,
it was really just growing up with it and a lot of us didn’t question that we
saw it but it wasn’t something we were really aware of it wasn’t really
something that you were made to feel proud of”
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| One of the few surviving images from the Past |
Julia said it was an emotional experience for them to try
and document and revive the practice and you could see her holding back the
tears as she was introducing the film
“On a deeper scale
there was a lot of crying we really felt a deep sadness” Julia said
Being married to a Maori man saw her spending more time in
New Zealand and seeing them going back and reviving their traditional designs which
sparked her thoughts as well.
“I realized that all their groups moved from texture and
paint to the real thing, and there’s this massive tattoo revival and, a lot of
women were doing it as well and I said to myself our women were the bomb and I
couldn’t understand why we weren’t practicing it anymore”
She said seeing women putting designs with paint and markers
only once a year during festivals and cultural shows wasn’t enough
“Why not all the time and that was something which drove us”
Julia said
Julia form Oaisaka Village, Mekeo and Australia, found out
that her grandmother was the last to be tattooed in the mekeo design in the
whole of mekeo.
“All the mekeo designs are gone the ones you see them now
are from the Roro people from the coast” she said
Natalie Richards from Raikau Village, Hula and Australia, one
of the four women was also researching in her village, and together with Julia
found out that missionaries were responsible for the decline in practice.
In the film an elderly women from Hula said she had her
tattoos from the dark ages referring to the time before missionary contact.
One woman said the London Missionaries introduced chorus and
peroveta leaving the traditional singing and tattooing to the older generation.
Julia said all the older women they asked in the village
confirmed it was because of missionary influence
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| two women from the Mekeo area with new tattoos after 60 years this two women are the first to get tatoos on their chests |
“My mother was not tattooed because she was one of the first
women to win a scholarship to go and study in Australia and she wasn’t there at
the village and my aunties didn’t get tattooed either and all the people we
asked said it was during the time of the missionaries”
“Because of missionary influence the tattooing was stopped
because it was deemed an unnecessary tradition I don’t think they understood
what that actually played, what that it did
to empower our women now it’s a massive challenge, it lost its importance”
Julia said in the film
Knowing most of the missionaries that came to Papua New
Guinea were accompanied by Polynesians Julia and Natalie with their two other colleagues
from Gabagaba Village and Australia, Paia Ingram and Ranu James went to Samoa where
they were tattooed using the traditional tapping method by the Sulu'ape family.
It was an emotional experience for them which got Julia
thinking about the importance of reviving the practice back home.
“We are close to losing our practice and going to Samoa and
seeing the Polynesian men and seeing them keeping their practice alive that’s
really important for us Papuan women and because they were part of the reason
why we stopped continuing our practice”
“Losing the tattoo means that we are losing our culture and
identity and looking outside to other people in the pacific is awesome but to
remember that what we have is incredible and we can keep that alive and it’s up
to us and if we don’t do it we are negligent,” Julia said
After their tattooing experience in Samoa one of them had to
take up the challenge of being the tattooist, and gladly Julia did
“For Melanesia it’s a women’s practice but then mostly it’s
a men’s practice it comes down to the dominant sex and that’s men so I see
that’s why we are not tattooing where as they are. For us as women to bring
back our tattooing practice also means that we need to have more of a voice in
society” Julia said
Julia is now tattooing both men and women “I am Passionate
about reinvigorating our women’s central tattoo designs. So our men can wear
our Bubu's tattoos as well”
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| Julia is now tattooing both men and women something that wasn't done in the past |
Julia said she is a contemporary artist with the motto “from
old to new old”, she added that in the past it was different but now they were
more flexible
“The person that gets tattooed they don’t choose their
designs and where it goes, it was the tattooist job to say this is your story,
that’s what the rest of Polynesia is doing, they take the persons look at their
history their genealogy and they design that tattoo for that particular person,
now women can decide their designs and we compromise the placement” Julia said
Julia and the team also bought back tattooing to the places
where it was dormant for a while Magaiva is one of the first mekeo girls to
wear mekeo poapoa on her chest in 60 or so years and Ofoi is the first Mekeo
boy to be tattooed in their area.
Julia said she had
been in talks with a young women and her family from Gabagaba central province
for her to get Bubu's designs on her skin (Revareva) and said to keep a look
out for Tep Tok Tatu at House of Xen over the next two months.
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